


Prologue To A Rivalry

by LadyRussellSprouts



Series: Farm to Table Universe [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Accidental Plot, Accidental Voyeurism, Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Apologies, Bathrooms, Coffee, F/M, Food, Insomnia, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Not Related, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, Late at Night, Rival Relationship, Rivalry, Showers, heat wave
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:01:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24904225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyRussellSprouts/pseuds/LadyRussellSprouts
Summary: The events leading up to the confrontation between our hero and heroine inFarm to Table.
Relationships: Armitage Hux & Phasma, Armitage Hux/Phasma, Kylo Ren & Rey, Kylo Ren/Rey
Series: Farm to Table Universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802062
Comments: 8
Kudos: 22





	1. A Faulty Lock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our hero and heroine learn the importance of locking doors when sharing living spaces in the ranch house at First & Co.

Kylo Ren had very few things to be thankful about in his life. However, the silence that greeted him in that moment easily topped the list. His day had been filled with the sounds of urgent demands, annoying questions and broken machinery. He didn’t need to come home to more false pleasantries in the bunkhouse at First & Co. 

Thankfully, most of the inhabitants avoided him but there were a few people who were still trying to engage in friendly banter. Kylo wasn’t here to make friends. He lived here because it was a condition under his contract with Order & Co. He was aware that it had been a ploy to keep eyes on him but it had been too amusing to watch Armitage Hux squirm at offering free housing.

Generosity was a word unfamiliar to Hux and his wife Phasma. The couple governed the farmlands at Order & Co. and the bunkhouses on the First & Co. properties with an iron fist. Those who could not abide by their rules were immediately thrown out and had to walk to town for accommodations. 

His boss could be a right bastard at times. Today had been one of those days where covering his ass had been more important than the safety of his workers. Kylo did not stand for that sort of bullshit and had said as much to the man’s face. In retaliation, Hux had insisted that Kylo’s passion for the safety of the workers should translate into personally investigating the tractor explosions within the warehouse. 

The ginger’s little mocking voice still circled Kylo’s mind as he slid off his muddy boots. Glancing at his wristwatch, he exhaled tiredly when the time glared 1:33 AM in neon green. The climb up the stairs and toward his assigned room was slow and treacherous. Awake since the crack of dawn, he wasn’t sure how he was still able to function. 

Flicking on the lights in his room, he assessed the space to make sure DJ, the live-in hacker, hadn't made off with his belongings. He stared longingly at the neatly made bed in the corner contemplating the necessity of a shower this late at night. The grime under his nails and the stench from his overalls mocked him silently. Sweat and dirt soaked through his plaid button up and stuck to him like a second skin. 

Huffing, Kylo rummaged around his closet for a clean towel. His parents hadn’t been around to teach him much but they had on more than one occasion mentioned the importance of cleanliness.

* * *

Rey rolled across her bed again, splaying her legs trying to cool down. For most of the night, she had flipped her pillow over hoping that one side would be cooler than the other. It didn’t last long but she was running out of options.

Given the temporary lack of screen, her window was opened as wide as she dared. She wasn’t about to wake up with insect companions in her room or God forbid, an animal companion. The window situation didn’t seem to matter though. The air was still and muggy outside. It was wishful thinking for a cool midnight breeze.

Rey cursed the stinginess of her landlady. Phasma only complied with requests outside of the housing contract when it suited her. The unanticipated heat wave in their county did not suit her so the AC would remain off until the designated Summer months. The importance of replacing Rey’s broken window screen had also fallen to the wayside as new people had moved into the bunkhouse. First, the awkward radar technician had moved in at the beginning of the month and now it was the stoic farm hand that Phasma’s husband had recently hired. The latter had caused the most gossip within the bunkhouse. 

Kyle Ron had not made an effort to meet the other people living in the bunkhouse and people had noticed. Everyone found him to be strange and standoffish, often answering questions with sarcasm or unnecessarily rude replies. She avoided him as best she could after hearing the horrifying stories from DJ and Randy but she found his use of two names very strange. Not simply Kyle or Ron but Kyle Ron. What had his parents been thinking? That name did not match the man at all. 

Rey shimmied out of her shorts and tossed it toward her laundry basket hoping the partial nudity would make some kind of difference. Groggy, she begged for the sweet relief of sleep. She had been awake since the crack of dawn finishing the decorations for the final batch of cupcakes at the bakery. Her neck, back and feet still throbbed at the memory of swirling buttercream frosting across cupcakes in the same position for hours. Her muscles begged for rest and recuperation but her mind would not cooperate. It was so hot!

At the end of her rope, Rey stumbled out of bed and grabbed the towel hanging on her closet door. She had run out of ideas but she was sure that a cool shower would be her only option to cool down tonight.

* * *

There was something infinitely soothing about standing under a spray of warm water. His eyes were fixated on the shower drain. The water had pooled in a disgusting brown but had cleared slowly the longer he stood under the shower spray. He felt remade, renewed. He felt like a new man. 

Kylo was probably losing his mind from the exhaustion. Who knew that a tired Kylo Ren could be so spiritual? On a sigh, he grasped the shampoo bottle almost dropping the stupid thing. Soaping the thick strands of his hair, he almost groaned as he massaged a particularly pleasurable spot on his scalp. He was passing a bar of soap from one shoulder to another when he heard a distinctly female gasp behind him. Reflexively, he turned.

In his state, Kylo Ren was not sure how to interpret what was in front of him.

Through the clear glass of the shower, he saw a woman in nothing more than a short top and undies standing at the bathroom door. A pale yellow towel lay at her feet as if it had fallen from her slack hands. Rumpled light brown locks swirled around her shoulders while hazel eyes widened in surprise. 

He was surprised to see her eyes dip slowly down his body but he found himself doing the same thing. Her top was a thin silky affair that did nothing to hide the outline of protruding nipples. One strap hung loosely from a smooth shoulder adding to her rumpled appearance. White cotton undies encased curved hips that led toward long, toned legs and dainty feet. Half of a working brain cell wondered what those legs would feel like wrapped around his waist. 

In the next moment, the hot water shut off, dosing him in ice water as if to punish him for the uncleanliness of his thoughts. The shout that came out of his mouth was inhuman as he tried to move out of the shower spray. 

* * *

Rey snapped out of the spell as the man before her made the most jarring sound while jerking oddly to the side of the glass cage. Self-preservation had her twisting her body around and power walking toward the safety of her room. 

Randy stepped out into the hallway. 

Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he asked, “Is everything okay?” 

“I saw nothing!” Rey replied a bit too forcefully. 

His eyes widened a fraction before confusion settled in. He turned toward her looking as if he would ask more questions but Rey powered past him. 

Slamming her door shut, Rey immediately locked the door and leaned against the wooden frame. She held her breath as male voices murmured in the hallway before doors were shut quietly. The sounds of the shower continued. Scanning her room as if it had answers, she stewed in the silence trying to process what had just happened. 

Closing her eyes, she rubbed her hands over her face in embarrassment. The darkness enhanced the images of a broad muscled body twisting as rivets of water trailed down thick thighs. 

Rey groaned into her palms before stepping toward her bed. This is what she got for being distracted and sleepy. She had not asked herself why the lights were already on beneath the bathroom door or why the shower was running inside. She had just opened the door.

In truth, she had stared uncomprehendingly at shifting shoulder blades and tight gluteal muscles a little longer than necessary before she realized what was happening. The sharp gasp had been involuntary. As Kyle Ron had turned around, she had gotten an eye full of bulging biceps, a broad chest and a shredded six pack. Oh, she was a terrible person because she had looked. She had _looked_! 

Traitorous eyes had followed the drops of water leading between two sculpted thighs and stared. Rey made a noise, flopping onto the bed with a new wave of mortification. Sleep forgotten, she buried her face in a pillow not knowing what to do with herself.

The sudden silence of water pipes shook her out of her mental scuffle. The shower was no longer running. A lead weight dropped into her stomach as the sound of what could only be the bathroom door opened. Anxiety over the coming confrontation thrummed in her veins as footsteps drew closer and closer. 

The footsteps stopped in front of her door. 

Rey wasn’t sure she was breathing as the silence dragged in the darkness. The crickets were silent as they also waited for what would happen next. 

Then, the footsteps retreated, heading toward the other side of the hallway. She breathed a sigh of relief but something drew her toward the locked door. Unlocking it slowly, she eased the door open and peaked outside into the hall. It was empty. All the adrenaline left her body in a rush. 

She was about to shut the door again when she noticed something on the ground. The towel she had forgotten in the bathroom lay in a neat fold on the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve had some readers really love Farm to Table but I don’t have enough inspiration to push forward for a full storyline. Instead, I’m backtracking hella hard to provide some context for the events of Farm to Table and dabble in the universe for a bit longer. I hope you have fun reading it like I did writing it.


	2. The Apology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroine tries to apologize but our hero makes it so much harder than it needs to be.

Rey began the morning making enough coffee for the entire bunkhouse. It was a special recipe, one she had been experimenting with. Something that she imagined would smell and taste like home. Smells that a young child could wake to and immediately know that it was morning and their parents were preparing breakfast in the kitchen. The roasted coffee beans, caramel and vanilla infused whipped cream conveyed a sense of home and safety. The irony of it all was that Rey had never had a home. As a child, she’d been passed around from house to house in the foster system. As an adult, she’d moved from apartment to apartment chasing after jobs that would pay a livable wage. 

The sun was barely cresting the horizon when Rey dried the last of the dishes and set them in the correct cabinets. The movements were calm, steady and at complete odds to the whirling of her thoughts. 

In the kitchen, Rey had made her home weaving magic with mundane, everyday ingredients. It was here she was able to make something delicious and call it her own. It was also where she hid when she was sad, angry or unsure of herself. In the arms of steel and machinery, she sought comfort.

This particular morning, she found no peace in the process of food making and feeding people. She was anxious, and confused. The night had passed quickly without a hint of sleep as her mind had whirled round and round with the same question. What should she do? 

Rey had decided firmly on two things as her mind had turned like the tides beating against jagged rocks. First, she would apologize to the new tenant. Second, she would make him her infamous coffee recipe in hopes of making peace. It was a simple enough plan but worry nagged in her mind. 

Why had he folded her towel and left it at her door? What was he trying to communicate? What if he held a grudge against her now and made her life miserable? She shivered, physically shaking away memories of Plutt and her old apartment. Rey desperately needed a place to live. 

It had been a godsend when Rose and Finn had recommended her to Phasma as a tenant. All the tenants living on both properties were employees in some capacity. Randy was interning under Hux in administration, DJ worked in the IT department and Matt was a contracted radar technician. Rey had been the odd one out and she had tried to be the best tenant and the best housemate. A small and irrational part of her worried that Phasma would turn her out of the house if she heard about what happened last night. The terrifying landowner had turned people out for lesser infringements on another tenant’s privacy.

Rey was sipping coffee quietly leaning against the counter when heavy footsteps came down the stairs. She held her breath as she wondered who was awake and hoped it was Randy so she could confide in him. 

Her heart pounded as Kyle Ron appeared in the arch of the kitchen entrance. They shared an uncomfortable glance. 

Rey shifted her eyes away first feeling overwhelmed by his large presence even though he was standing at the edge of the room. He shifted awkwardly from one leg to the other as she handed him the cup of coffee with extra whip cream. 

“I made everyone coffee this morning.” She began awkwardly. 

He accepted her peace offering without expression, eyes looking anywhere but her. 

The silence lingered for a beat too long as she waited for him to say something. When nothing was forthcoming, she decided to take the bull by the horns and get this over with. 

“Kyle Ron,” she began and paused as his eyes snapped to her. “I’m sorry for walking in on you. I--”

Glancing at the cup in his hands, he scoffed. 

It was a small sound but it communicated his feelings more effectively than any words could. The apology on the tip of her tongue withered away as her eyebrows wrinkled together in confusion. Her hackles rose as she took in his pompous expression. 

His eyes narrowed. “Do you know who you are apologizing to?” 

“Yes. You,” she replied dumbly, fingers twitching around the rim of her cup.

Rey had never seen someone roll their eyes so forcefully. “I don’t know who Kyle Ron is. My name is Kylo Ren.”

Her eyes widened and she felt her face heat up with embarrassment. The world was suddenly turning on its head and slowing down at the same time in a way that physics could not explain. 

“I don’t want an apology. I would prefer if you knocked on the bathroom door like a normal person instead of barging in like you own the place.”

_You do not deserve an apology_ , Rey thought to herself as he continued. 

With a few strokes of eloquently placed words, he had humiliated her so thoroughly. Rey no longer felt bad about calling him the wrong name ever since he moved in or for walking in on him in the shower. In fact, she was partially thankful that whatever forces of the universe had allowed him to cockblock his own apology. This man was the biggest douchebag she had ever met and she wouldn’t waste another moment thinking about how she had done something wrong to him. This is what she got for trying to be kind. 

Anger curled in the pit of her stomach like a viper ready to strike. She set her cup on the counter a bit too roughly, waiting for him to pause in his monologue on the importance of bathroom etiquette in professionally shared spaces.

Brushing past him, she said over her shoulder, “Well, next time lock the door. No one here is interested in your exhibitionist streak.” 

She left the kitchen, not waiting for him to work out a reply. The scorching heat of his glare followed her as she headed upstairs to the safety of her room. She heard him take a sip of the coffee before spitting it out and gagging. Rey was too upset to be offended that he didn’t like her infamous coffee. Instead, she took satisfaction in his disapproval and wished he had choked instead. 


End file.
